salt cod in the basket when the storm hit and
he was trapped below deck. He might be
San Juan'sonly casualty."
That rat and others like him left ample
proof of their presence on board. Among the
great stern timbers we found hundreds of
tiny tooth marks made by rats that were
drawn by the pungent aroma of whale oil
that had permeated the timbers.
The tens of thousands of codfish bones we
found in association with the wreck testify
not only to the crew's staple diet but also to
the manner in which it was prepared. The
codfish bones are so perfectly preserved that
they still reveal knife marks from heading
and splitting techniques identical to those
used by Labrador fishermen today.
Despite their best efforts, the salvors of
San Juan left us several priceless articles of
ship's gear. One is a wooden reel, a spool
like device believed to be used for measuring
the ship's speed. If true, the reel from San
Juan would be the oldest such item recov
ered from any wreck in the New World. The
same is so of San Juan's wooden compass
and binnacle and a sandglass frame.
It remained for the second ship, found in
1983, to yield the greatest nautical prize.
From among the charred hull fragments we
salvaged a brass astrolabe, a primitive fore
runner of the sextant. The find proves that
at least one pilot aboard a Basque whaling
ship knew considerably more than the old
adage about the North Star. It also seems to
confirm the vessel's destruction by fire-an
astrolabe was far too rare and precious an
instrument to have been abandoned except
in a dire emergency.
Perhaps our most colorful find is a wood
en version of scrimshaw-a plank bearing
the carved portrait of a ship that may well
be San Juanherself (right).
Recovered at the end of the
j.
1983 season, the design
appears to have been made
with a sharp, double-pointed
instrument, possibly navigator's
dividers.
Besides its artistic value, the carving
gives us what seems to be an accurate rendi
tion of a 16th-century whaling galleon, not
by some inexperienced landsman but by one
who knew every spar and timber of his sub
ject intimately.
16th-Century Basque Whalers in America
f r HEN we have completed work
1 on the wreck at Red Bay, she will be
reburied on the floor of the harbor.
The dismantling and detailed analysis of the
hull tell us more than we could learn by rais
ing the ship intact.
In fact, we have something almost as
good as the actual galleon in the form of
precise replicas of her vital parts. From
thousands of drawings of well-preserved
A dream came true for young
archaeologistMarianneStopp (top) in
1983 when she discovered a portraitof a
ship (above), perhapsthe same galleon it
was carved on, showing a single cannon
astern.Although borers had chewed the
edge, most details,possibly scribed with
navigator'sdividers, remainedintact.
"^